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BIOIMPEDANCE AS A POTENTIAL DIAGNOSTIC DECISION TOOL FOR
SKIN NEOPLASMS
P. Åberg*, I. Nicander**, U. Holmberg***, J. Hansson**** and S. Ollmar*
* Medical Engineering, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
** Dermatology, Huddinge University Hospital, Huddinge, Sweden
*** Department of Surgery, Läkarmottagningen Hötorget, Stockholm, Sweden
**** Department of Oncology-Pathology, Radiumhemmet, Karolinska Hospital and Institute,
Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract: The aim is to investigate the diagnostic
power of electric impedance measurements of basal
cell carcinoma (BCC), benign pigmented cellular
nevi (BEN), and normal skin. Impedance of 258 BEN
and 34 BCC were measured from 1 to 1000 kHz. The
data were analysed using receiver operating charac-
teristic (ROC) curves. Area under the ROC curves of
BEN vs. references was 0.83, BCC vs. references
0.92, and BEN vs. BCC 0.87, i.e. the impedance tech-
nique can, with some technical enhancements, be
useful in classifying skin lesions.
Keywords: electric bio-impedance, skin cancer, re-
ceiver operating characteristic, basal cell carcinoma,
benign pigmented cellular nevi
Introduction
Emtestam et al. [1] and Kapoor [2] used electrical
impedance to assess basal cell carcinoma (BCC), benign
pigmented cellular nevi (BEN) with normal skin as
references. It was found that there are significant differ-
ences for BCC vs. references and BEN vs. BCC. This
implies that skin impedance can be used to classify skin
lesions. The aim of this paper is to reproduce the previ-
ous results and to determine the diagnostic power of the
technique using the area under receiver operating char-
acteristic (ROC) curves.
Materials and Methods
Impedance spectra of 258 BEN lesions in 159 pa-
tients, and 34 BCC readings in 25 patients were ob-
tained using the SciBase I depth selective impedance
spectrometer [SciBase AB, Huddinge, Sweden]. There
are subdivisions of BEN and BCC that have not been
considered in this study. Reference skin was measured
ipsi-lateral to the lesions. Prior to an impedance meas-
urement, the skin/lesion was soaked with saline solution
for approximately one minute in order to increase the
contact between the site and probe and to reduce the
high impedance of the stratum corneum which otherwise
can overshadow the information from the underlying
tissue. Lesions smaller than 5 mm in diameter were not
included in this study. The lesions were subsequently
excised for histopathological diagnosis.
For two populations, e.g. references and abnormal
lesions, sensitivity and specificity can be calculated at a
certain threshold. If the threshold is moved iteratively
from minimal to maximal value, the sensitivity and
specificity will vary between 0.0 and 1.0. A plot of the
sensitivity on the x-axis and 1-specificity on the y-axis
of the iterations is called a ROC curve. The area under
the ROC curve (AUC) is an estimate of the probability
that a randomly chosen subject is correctly diagnosed,
i.e. the AUC is a representation of the diagnostic accu-
racy of the technique [3]. For an AUC of 0.5, the diag-
nostic accuracy is as low as random classification, and
AUC of 1.0 is ideal diagnostic accuracy (i.e. sensitivity
and specificity equals 1.0).
The impedance was measured in polar coordinates
(magnitude and phase) at 31 logarithmically distributed
frequencies from 1 to 1000 kHz in five depth settings,
approximately between 0.1 and 2 mm, in volumes under
the probe. (The depth penetration is tissue dependent
and will vary with thickness of the stratum corneum.
I.e., the absolute depth penetration is uncertain. How-
ever, the relative depth penetration is certain and depth
penetration increases with depth setting). In order to
study the details of the spectra, the original data were
expanded with the impedance of the complex plane (real
and imaginary part).
The data of the lesion types were analysed using
ROC curves in the SPSS software [SPSS Inc., Chicago,
Ill., USA]. AUC was calculated for each depth setting,
frequency, and impedance presentation (magnitude,
phase, real part, and imaginary part). The probability of
the AUC’s equality to 0.5 was calculated under non-
parametric assumptions.
Results
It was found that the AUCs of the depth settings
were highly correlated, and that AUCs were higher in
the low frequency region. AUCs of the real part of the
impedance were lower than the other impedance repre-
sentations, and the magnitude and imaginary parts were
highly correlated to each other. The maximal areas un-
der the ROC curves for BEN vs. references, BCC vs.
references, and BEN vs. BCC are listed in table 1. The
maximal AUCs were significantly higher than 0.5 for all
tissue types. ROC curves of the maximal separation
between the tissue types are shown in Figure 1.
Table 1. Maximal area under curve (AUCmax) ± standard
error of ROC analysis of the impedance spectra, the
probability of equality to 0.5 (P), and location of
AUCmax.
Location of AUCmax
Tissues AUCmax P Imp. Freq. Depth
BEN vs. REF 0.829± 0.018 <0.001 Imag. 1.2 kHz 2
BCC vs. REF 0.921± 0.035 <0.001 Phase 25 kHz 1
BEN vs. BCC 0.874±0.040 <0.001 Phase 1 kHz 4
Discussion
Our results are in line with previous investigations
[1,2]. In addition to the previous results, we found that
there is a systematic difference between BEN and refer-
ences. The impedance properties of the tissue types were
partially overlapping. This was most likely due to elec-
tromagnetic noise and biological variations. The Sci-
Base I is not immune to surrounding electromagnetic
noise, and it will occasionally cause fluctuations in the
measured impedance spectra. In future experiments this
will be avoided by using a new version of the imped-
ance spectrometer. The biological impedance variations
are a result of lesion differences (size, shape, subdivi-
sion, colour, thickness of stratum corneum), variations
between subjects [4], and location variations [4,5]. It is
believed that the biological variations can be reduced by
physical modifications of the probe design. Technical
developments are in progress.
Conclusions
There are clear impedance differences for BEN vs.
references, BCC vs. references, and BEN vs. BCC. This
implies that the technique, with some developments, can
be useful in clinical diagnosis of skin lesions, or at least
as a tool to more accurately identify skin lesions for
surgical excision and histopathologic evaluation. This
may lead to a reduction in unnecessary surgical biopsies.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the staff at Depart-
ment of Surgery, Läkarmottagningen Hötorget, Stock-
holm, Sweden. This work was sponsored by SciBase
AB, Huddinge, Sweden, and the Knowledge Founda-
tion, Stockholm, Sweden.
REFERENCES
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[2] S. Kapoor, “Bioelectric impedance techniques for
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[3] J.A. Hanley and B.J. McNeil, “The meaning and
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Figure 1. ROC curves of (a) BEN vs. references, (b) BCC vs. references, and (c) BEN vs. BCC at the location of the
maximal AUC. The diagonal line marks the area where AUC equals 0.5.
